As the White House on Monday backed off in a legal dispute with CNN over the press credentials of White House correspondent Jim Acosta, the White House announced new rules of behavior for reporters, which could result in the suspension of a reporter’s press pass for asking more than one question of the President or top administration officials. “We have created these rules with a degree of regret,” said White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders, who directly blamed Acosta for the change, after the CNN reporter locked horns with President Trump in a post-election news conference earlier this month, refusing to give up the microphone while trying to get answers from the President about immigration policy. Here are the new rules as set out by the White House, which were contained in an email sent on Monday afternoon through the White House Pool: Sent: Monday, November 19, 2018 4:06 PM Subject: In-Town Pool Report #3- Acosta/CNN Letter From Press Secretary Sarah Sanders: This afternoon we have notified Jim Acosta and CNN that his hard pass has been restored. We have also notified him of certain rules that will govern White House press conferences going forward. They are listed here: A journalist called upon to ask a question will ask a single question and then will yield the floor to other journalists; At the discretion of the President or other White House official taking questions, a follow-up question or questions may be permitted; and where a follow up has been allowed and asked, the questioner will then yield the floor; “Yielding the floor” includes, when applicable, physically surrendering the microphone to White House staff for use by the next questioner; Failure to abide by any of rules (1)-(3) may result in suspension or revocation of the journalist’s hard pass. We have created these rules with a degree of regret. For years, members of the White House press corps have attended countless press events with the President and other officials without engaging in the behavior Mr. Acosta displayed at the November 7, 2018 press conference. We would have greatly preferred to continue hosting White House press conferences in reliance on a set of understood professional norms, and we believe the overwhelming majority of journalists covering the White House share that preference. But, given the position taken by CNN, we now feel obligated to replace previously shared practices with explicit rules. We are mindful that a more elaborate and comprehensive set of rules might need to be devised, including, for example, for journalist conduct in the open (non-press room) areas inside and outside the White House and for Air Force One. At this time however, we have decided not to frame such rules in the hope that professional journalistic norms will suffice to regulate conduct in those places. If unprofessional behavior occurs in those settings, or if a court should decide that explicit rules are required to regulate conduct there, we will be forced to reconsider this decision. The White House’s interaction with the press is, and generally should be, subject to a natural give-and-take. President Trump believes strongly in the First Amendment, and a free press and is the most accessible President in modern history. It would be a great loss for all if, instead of relying on the professionalism of White House journalists, we were compelled to devise a lengthy and detailed code of conduct for White House events.

The recent turbulence in the U.S. stock markets is spooking some older workers and retirees, a group that was hit particularly hard during the most recent financial crisis. There’s no indication, though, that the recent volatility has brought about large-scale overhauls in retirement planning. “There’s a lot of fear that if you have another event like 2008 and you retire the year before or the year after, you’re screwed. I’m not taking that risk,” says Mark Patterson, a recently retired patent attorney from Nashville, Tennessee. “There’s a huge fear of folks my age that they’re going to run out of money and they’re going to need to rely on the government for help.” By the time the market bottomed out during the financial crisis in 2009, an estimated $2.7 trillion had been wiped out of Americans’ retirement accounts, according to the Urban Institute. Older Americans, in particular, have had a tough time recovering their losses. The Pew Research Center estimates the net worth of the median Baby Boomer household in 2016 was still nearly 18 percent shy of where it sat in 2007.

Even the best of cooks can end up missing an ingredient on Thanksgiving morning. If you find yourself short on nutmeg or minus a few potatoes, there is a good chance a grocery store near you will be open on Thanksgiving for at least for part of the day. Here is a list of Thanksgiving Day openings, closings and store hours for national grocery store chains. Reminder: Some stores do not follow national opening/closing hours. Some state laws prohibit stores being open on a holiday. Be sure to check with your local stores for times. ALDI: All stores are closed on Thanksgiving. AJ's Fine Foods: Open 6 a.m. - 2 p.m. on Thanksgiving. Albertsons: Open from 6 a.m.-5 p.m. on Thanksgiving. Bashas': Open until 3 p.m. on Thanksgiving. BJ's Wholesale Club: BJ’s is closed Thanksgiving. Costco: All stores will be closed on Thanksgiving. Food Lion: Most stores will be open until 3 p.m. (depending on the store). Fresh Market: Open until 3 p.m. on Thanksgiving. Ingles: Open regular hours on Thanksgiving. Kroger: Stores are open regular hours on Thanksgiving. Publix: All stores and pharmacies will be closed on Thanksgiving; regular hours resume on Friday. Safeway: Most stores will be open from 6 a.m. until 6 p.m. Sam's Club: All stores are closed on Thanksgiving. Sprouts Farmers Market: Open 7 a.m. - 4 p.m. on Thanksgiving. Target: Stores open at 5 p.m. on Thanksgiving and close at 1 a.m. Friday. Trader Joes: All stores closed on Thanksgiving. Walmart: Stores will be open on Thanksgiving. Wegmans: Most Wegmans locations will close at 4 p.m. on Thanksgiving. Whole Foods: Hours: 9 a.m.-2 p.m. on Thanksgiving.

After a post-election vote fight that showcased vote counting troubles in two south Florida counties, Sen. Bill Nelson (D-FL) conceded defeat to Gov. Rick Scott (R) on Sunday, ensuring Republican gains in the Senate in the 2018 mid-term elections, and delivering a welcome piece of good post-election news for President Donald Trump and the GOP. “I just spoke with Senator Bill Nelson, who graciously conceded, and I thanked him for his years of public service,” said Scott in a statement. “My focus will not be on looking backward, but on doing exactly what I ran on,” Scott said. “Making Washington Work.” Florida elections officials on Sunday announced a final advantage for Scott of 10,033 votes – that was down from just under 15,000 in favor of Scott when the machine recount began, and lower than the nearly 12,500 edge for the GOP before the hand recount started on Friday. For Republicans, the hard fought win gives them a gain of two seats in the Senate for 2019, as the GOP will have a 53-47 edge, provided they can also win a special runoff election for Senate in Mississippi after Thanksgiving. The Scott victory was a rare piece of good news for Republicans since Election Day, as the GOP has lost a number of close House races in recent days. Democrats have now gained 37 seats in the House, with five GOP seats still undecided amid continued vote counting. Nelson becomes the fifth U.S. Senator to lose in November, joining three other Democrats – McCaskill in Missouri, Heitkamp in North Dakota, and Donnelly in Indiana – along with one Republican Senator, Heller in Nevada. While 5 Senators were tossed out by the voters in November, 27 House members – all Republicans – have been defeated. Several more could still lose in the five remaining House contests which are undecided. Hanging over the defeat for Nelson is what appears to have been a ballot design problem in one small part of Broward County, Florida, where thousands of voters did not cast a vote in the U.S. Senate race, which happened at a much higher rate than other areas in that county. The Florida Senate count is at Scott+10,033, right around the margin where the Broward County undervote/bad ballot design could have been decisive. We may never know https://t.co/Gg14C1heaV — Nate Cohn (@Nate_Cohn) November 18, 2018 The ‘undervote’ problems in that area of Broward County were just part of a slew of post-election issues highlighted by the wrangling over the final tally in both the Florida Senate and Florida Governor’s race.

Trump blasts Attorney General over indictment of GOP lawmakers in Congress

Posted: 4:42 pm Monday, September 3rd, 2018

By Jamie Dupree

President Donald Trump on Monday continued his attacks on his own Attorney General, blaming Jeff Sessions for endangering the Republican majority in the U.S. House in 2018 by allowing the indictments of two GOP lawmakers to go forward, possibly putting their seats in play this November.

“Good job Jeff,” the President said dismissively in a pair of tweets on Labor Day.

On Twitter, the President was referring to criminal indictments issued in August of Rep. Chris Collins (R-NY) – accused of insder trading and lying to the feds – and Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-CA), who was charged with misusing $250,000 in campaign funds for personal use, allegedly spending it on everything from dental bills to private school tuition for his children.

“Two easy wins now in doubt,” the President wrote about the fate of those two seats in the mid-term elections.

Two long running, Obama era, investigations of two very popular Republican Congressmen were brought to a well publicized charge, just ahead of the Mid-Terms, by the Jeff Sessions Justice Department. Two easy wins now in doubt because there is not enough time. Good job Jeff……

….The Democrats, none of whom voted for Jeff Sessions, must love him now. Same thing with Lyin’ James Comey. The Dems all hated him, wanted him out, thought he was disgusting – UNTIL I FIRED HIM! Immediately he became a wonderful man, a saint like figure in fact. Really sick!

In his tweets, the President also tried to blame Democrats for the prosecution of the pair of GOP lawmakers, referring to the investigations of “Two long running, Obama era, investigations of two very popular Republican Congressmen.”

While the Hunter investigation had been going on for some time, the insider trading charges related to Rep. Collins had occurred during Mr. Trump’s time in office, with the key action taking place while Collins was at the White House for a Congressional picnic hosted by President Trump.

“Christopher Collins received the CEO’s email while attending an official event on the South Lawn of the White House,” the indictment of Collins states, describing a chain of events on June 22, 2017 – not during the Obama Administration – where Collins was informed of a negative result for a drug trial by an Australian biotech firm in which he was heavily invested, along with members of his family.

The feds allege that in the hours after Collins received that information, the Congressman’s son, his girlfriend, and his girlfriend’s family members began making moves to sell stock in the company, before information of the drug trial failure became public – all in an effort to avoid financial losses.

Democrats said the President’s tweets were a clear indicator that he sees the Justice Department as a tool to protect him, his office and the Republican Party.

“The President doesn’t bother to disguise his authoritarian impulses or conviction that law enforcement should simply be an extension of his political self-interest,” said Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA).

“He’s not hiding how he views the law, law enforcement, of justice,” wrote Sen. Brian Schatz (D-HI) on Twitter soon after the President’s tweets. “In his world they swore an oath to him, not he constitution and laws.”

“I mean that last tweet if he were caught on tape saying that it would be front page news,” Schatz added.

“The United States is not some banana republic with a two-tiered system of justice – one for the majority party and one for the minority party,” said Sen. Ben Sasse (R-NE), one of the few Republicans to note the President’s words.

In the legal community, eyebrows were raised as well by the President’s tweet.

“This is how you normalize Presidential corruption,” said law professor Orin Kerr of the University of Southern California. “Slowly put it more and more in the open until everyone just shrugs that *of course* the President wants to use law enforcement for partisan ends.”

“Disgraceful,” said Fran Townsend, a former top White House aide to President George W. Bush, who labeled the President’s tweet “UnAmerican.”

Disgraceful, disgusting and most importantly (speaking as a former Federal prosecutor) UnAmerican. The statute of Justice is blindfolded for a reason, it applies to all without fear nor favor 🇺🇸 https://t.co/QEIINFVOB3

“He reminds us at least daily that he sympathizes with oligarchs and corrupt politicians and opposes DOJ and FBI’s anti-corruption and counterintelligence efforts,” said Michael Bromwich, a former Inspector General at the Justice Department. “Wonder why.”

Will DJT never learn that an attorney general’s job is not to play goalie for a president or his party, or any party for that matter? https://t.co/zIKXv6uDqf